Tomorrow (Tuesday) will see the editing done then some tweeks and some interesting findings…low light issues against the EX-3. Only here will you be able to make your mind up wether to add this camera as a good second partner to your EX-3. Come back on Wednesday afternoon (8th April 09) to find out.

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If you want to learn some of the more inner secrets of Final Cut Studio 2 then look no further than Ripple Training. My early days plodding around Motion was a nightmare. Motion 3 with 3D elements is a bigger nightmare but the chaps at Ripple Training take your hand and walk you through the various steps and protocols. I have to dip into my Ripple DVDs now and again for a refresher course but I can tell you I am so glad I have my DVDs for reference. Ripple also do various free tutorials on their web site, why not give them a look.

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Sony recently brought out the second generation “Z” camcorder and added a 20x wide angle zoom and an option to record to compact flash card. I have one of these camcorders for a couple of days plus some user testimonials. As usual I will compare this camera against the EX-3.

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Can I start by putting my hand up to owning two of these cards, two express readers and two Transend 16G SDHC cards (Class 6). The MxM expresscard/34 will record at 1920 x 1080 mb/s HQ in the same way as your SxS Pro memory card will record. This is the most popular format the majority of video operators will record at. By utilizing a combination of MxM expresscard/34 and a reasonably priced SDHC memory card, film makers and videographers on location can now shoot for days, without the unnecessary and costly need of extra equipment to safeguard their footage to eg laptops or pcs. They can offload at their convenience at a later stage and reduce interruptions during the filming process.

Why should I use a MxM card instead of Sony SxS card?

The biggest consideration to use the MxM cards is the price. To be able to record using a modestly priced adapter, onto commodity priced SDHC cards has dropped the cost per hour of footage to between 1/6th and 1/8th of SxS. This has led producers to be able to complete shoots without the need to offload to Laptop. Some producers are completing several days of shooting and downloading when they return to the studio. Others are handing over the SDHC cards at the end of the shoot, in the same way they did with tape.

Which firmware should I have to use MxM cards?
An MxM card will only work with firmware 1.11_0531 and 1.12 on EX1/EX3. All cameras produced post August 2008 come with this update. If your camera does not have this update you will have to go back to Sony to have the firmware updated. There are links on the internet which show you how to update manually, but we highly recommend you use a Sony repair centre to complete it.

The company in Australia also now produce very low cost card storage solutions you can buy plastic box holders to keep the dust out and is a pleasant change from the Sony blue box.

So what does it all cost ?

$19 for postage, $45 for 1 MxM card and an orange box (Note. Australian dollars) Around £75 including 16G SDHC card.

Carry Case
An exclusive case for efficient storage of the HXR-MC1P and accessories (It’s a pity when you pay £2175 for the camera and recorder that they did not think to include an exclusive carry case !)

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If I had shown this to you yesterday (April fools day) you may have seen the photoshop work… EX-3 viewfinder and slots x 2. The main thing would have been the XDCAM EX logo… time was against me and I had to make the logo look convincing without spending time looking for it in my fonts collection so I decided to make the picture smaller. The camera as you will have noticed is in fact a PDW-700. Just after I put this up I emailed Philip Bloom who came in on it which had a remarkable effect, I wasn’t prepared for Philip to then post this into two forums. Thats when the site went wild we even got posted in Japan so no doubt good old Sony got to see a new camera they weren’t expecting to see…! If Sony would like to take my idea and produce such a camera I and many others would be delighted.

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Finally it’s here just in time for NAB 2009 the all new Sony EX-7 here are a few specs from Sonys pre NAB press release…

The PMW-EX7 camcorder is equipped with three 1/2-inch CCDs – using newly developed “Power HAD™ FX” progressive CCD technology with 1920 x 1080 effective pixels. Breathtaking HD images can be captured by these high-resolution CCDs and the 14-bit A/D conversion and advanced digital signal processing incorporated into the PMW-EX-7.

The PMW-EX7 comes with 4 SxS slots (Please note. This camera will not take MxR or MxM cards) and records from 50Mb/s 4:2:2 through to DVCAM.

The superb picture quality of the PMW-EX7 will increase the appeal for applications such as documentary, European TV drama and mainstream entertainment programmes that require a high quality look. File-based acquisition, with thumbnail and proxy operation is also ideal for fast-turnaround news and live applications where speed of production is a critical requirement.

The suggested price will be around £8700

NEWS JUST IN…

A new deck the PDW-U75D will have 4 slots and a disc insert allowing you to archive from SxS onto 50Gb discs. Recording onto Dual Layer discs (50GB) is a feature of a range of new Sony products, including the PDW-F335 XDCAM HD camcorders and full range of XDCAM EX camcorders. (Picture & price coming soon).

PLEASE NOTE…April fools day falls in the UK every 1st of April…one day only !

As Philip Bloom said “The irony is it’s what we all want !!” So if Sony are listening we have supported the hybrid look but a camcorder similar to the Panasonic 301 with 1/2″ Power HAD CCD etc. etc. will make you a fortune.

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You’ve made an investment in Sony XDCAM HD quality. Now enjoy its full potential while you edit, then output and record to SDI or analog formats without rendering. Matrox MXO and MXO2 are the only portable I/O devices on the market that let you monitor and output your XDCAM and XDCAM HD timelines at full frame rate and full frame size from Final Cut Pro without first transcoding to an intermediate format such as ProRes or DVCPRO. You save time on every project and enjoy a more fluid workflow on your MacBook Pro or Mac Pro.

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Digital Juice Fonts, Collection Two takes off right where we left off in the first collection with ten completely new font families and over 500 new DJ Fonts.

Collection Two has more than 60 new textures and each Font Family has more layers to customize than ever before. That means more options, more looks, and more fun.

Each DJ Font Family in this collection is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking detail work by our illustrators. This effort, in tandem with the endless hours put in by our programming team has provided you with a product more customizable, more powerful, more useful, and more fun than any product we’ve ever released.